American oracle : the Civil War in the civil rights era / David W. Blight.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blight, David W.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-1989.

Warren, Robert Penn.

Catton, Bruce, 1899-1978.

Catton, Bruce.

Wilson, Edmund, 1895-1972.

Wilson, Edmund.

Baldwin, James, 1924-1987.

Baldwin, James.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Historiography.

United States.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Influence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (321 p.)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, a century after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Martin Luther King, Jr., declared, "One hundred years later, the Negro still is not free." He delivered this speech just three years after the Virginia Civil War Commission published a guide proclaiming that "the Centennial is no time for finding fault or placing blame or fighting the issues all over again."David Blight takes his readers back to the centennial celebration to determine how Americans then made sense of the suffering, loss, and liberation that had wracked the United States a century earlier. Amid cold war politics and civil rights protest, four of America's most incisive writers explored the gulf between remembrance and reality. Robert Penn Warren, the southern-reared poet-novelist who recanted his support of segregation; Bruce Catton, the journalist and U.S. Navy officer who became a popular Civil War historian; Edmund Wilson, the century's preeminent literary critic; and James Baldwin, the searing African-American essayist and activist-each exposed America's triumphalist memory of the war. And each, in his own way, demanded a reckoning with the tragic consequences it spawned.Blight illuminates not only mid-twentieth-century America's sense of itself but also the dynamic, ever-changing nature of Civil War memory. On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the war, we have an invaluable perspective on how this conflict continues to shape the country's political debates, national identity, and sense of purpose.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Prologue. "Five Score Years Ago"

Chapter one. "Gods and Devils Aplenty"

Chapter two. A Formula for Enjoying the War

Chapter three. "Lincoln and Lee and All That"

Chapter four. "This Country Is My Subject"

Epilogue. "The Wisdom of Tragedy"

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674062702

0674062701

OCLC:

758390031